no beer for 2 weeks...

[turtleboy3737]

The doctor just put me on a perscription for 2 whole weeks I cant have alcohol...

The worst part is, my apfelwein will be done in 1 week.

How will I survive!?!?!?

I need some words of encouragement

 

[lumpher]

we'll take care of it, and drink some extra dedicated to you

 

[JetSmooth]

Sorry to hear that, man. Back in 2002, after 9/11, I donated blood and got a letter back from the Red Cross several weeks later that basically said:

"Thanks, but no thanks. Your blood is bad. Please never donate blood ever again ... BTW, you should see your doctor ASAP. KTHXBAI."

Naturally, I freaked. Got the test results from the Red Cross and went to see my doctor. They told me that I had "Fatty Liver Disease", which roughly translates to:

"You have fat deposits in your liver. We don't know why. We don't know what causes it. It could be bad. It might not be. But you should probably stop drinking or you will die. KTHXSBAI."

I asked my father, who is a physician what they meant about the dying part and he asked me how much I drank on average. I told him a typical night of drinking might be one or three twice a week. He said in order for fatty liver to turn into cirrhosis (which is what they were worried about), I would have to drink a pint of whiskey (Yes, the Irish whiskEy) a day for twenty or so years and not to worry.

Just for good measure, however, I stopped drinking for FOUR months. Yes, FOUR months. Got retested and nothing had changed. So I went back to my moderate drinking.

Some months later, I got ANOTHER letter from the Red Cross that said:

"Oh, hey. About that whole blood thing. We retested. You're cool. BTW, here are some blood drives in your area. We need you, dude. KTHXBAI!! XOXOXO"

I haven't donated blood since.

Epilogue: I just went back in to follow up a few weeks ago. Liver enzymes are pretty much where they were. My blood pressure is stable (I'm 33 and have had the BP of a 65 year old professional salt-licker) but they think I might be diabetic. YAY! Am I worried? Hell no. But I'll keep you in my prayers if you keep me in yours. Deal?

 

[copper]

the extra week of untouched aging will be worth the wait, I'm sure

 

[robtotten]

That sucks, is it a strong antibiotic? Some of the meds they tell you not to drink on, you can actually drink on without doing damage. Others (some antibiotics, Vicodin or anything with acetaminophen) you just have to suck it up and stick to iced tea. It'll probably do you good, look at it as a cleansing

 

[Stuntman]

Two weeks! You can do it Turtle! Man I can almost hold my breath for two weeks....suck it up....oh I'm getting dizzy (forget that remark about not needing to breathe:cross:

 

[biochemedic]

If it's Flagyl (metronidazole), you better listen and not drink...if you do you'll be sick as a dog and very sorry... It has similar properties to Antabuse -- a drug they give alcoholics to intentionally make them sick if they drink (and probably the only true example of the use of negative reinforcement therapy in medicine!)

 

[JoshuaWhite5522]

I decided to ignore my Dr once when given antibiotics. The outcome was not good. They made me a super cheap date that night, but I also got sick at the party. Kept throwing all night. Felt like crap when someone said "Who brought the light weight"

 

[robtotten]

I had a friend who was on Flagyl (I think, the generic is metro-something-zole?), he had one stiff drink and got unbelievably horribly pukey sick. It was a nightmare, absolutely disgusting and a five star puke fest.

If it's Flagyl (metronidazole), you better listen and not drink...if you do you'll be sick as a dog and very sorry... It has similar properties to Antabuse -- a drug they give alcoholics to intentionally make them sick if they drink (and probably the only true example of the use of negative reinforcement therapy in medicine!)

 

[turtleboy3737]

Im on ketoconazole. Apparently there is a bunch of drugs that have what they refer to as disulfiram reactions (disulfiram being the most notable drug with this reaction, given to alcoholics to provide an acute sensitivity to alcohol)

Under normal metabolism, alcohol is broken down in the liver by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase to acetaldehyde, which is then converted by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase to the harmless acetic acid. Disulfiram blocks this reaction at the intermediate stage by blocking the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. After alcohol intake under the influence of disulfiram, the concentration of acetaldehyde in the blood may be 5 to 10 times higher than that found during metabolism of the same amount of alcohol alone. As acetaldehyde is one of the major causes of the symptoms of a "hangover" this produces immediate and severe negative reaction to alcohol intake. Some 5–10 minutes after alcohol intake, the patient may experience the effects of a severe hangover for a period of 30 minutes up to several hours. Symptoms include flushing of the skin, accelerated heart rate, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, throbbing headache, visual disturbance, mental confusion, postural fainting, and circulatory collapse.

essentially withing 5-10 minutes of drinking the acetaldehyde in my system will give me the feelings of a massive hangover. Granted I doubt it will be as bad for me as those who are actually ON disulfiram but still...

needless to say I'll be drinking soda only for a couple weeks

 

[forcera]

Two weeks??? That's nothing!

While in college I didn't drink for a whole year. It was the year that I was president of my fraternity so I had to look after a bunch of stuff.

With that said suck it up, it's only two weeks. It's for your health. Without your health you cannot drink period.

 

[Erythro73]

Well. That's probably the best way to prove to everybody around you that you are not an alcoholic.

If you can't do this, because you physically/mentally need it, I might worry about alcoholism for you. 2 weeks should be nothing.

 

[dshaggy]

Yeah, two weeks isn't bad at all. A few years ago I got put on some antibiotics after going to the VA hospital for something. I have always thought you're not supposed to drink while on antibiotics, no matter what they are. When my doctor came in I asked him about it and he's like "Yeah you can drink, I know I would". It cracked me up, but yeah I'm sure it depends on what drug your on.